FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 2, 2000

CONTACT: SID GAULDEN, 803-896-8755

TO HELP CHILDREN HAVE SAFE RETURN TO SCHOOL

COLUMBIA – The South Carolina Department of Public Safety is teaming up with local law enforcement to help ensure a "Safe Return to Safer Schools" for Midlands children.

Highway Patrol District One, which includes Richland, Lexington, Aiken, Kershaw, Sumter and Lee counties, has been working with the Richland, Lexington and Aiken County Sheriff’s Departments to identify some of the most dangerous areas around schools. As children return to school this year, these law enforcement agencies will team up to focus enforcement efforts on those areas.

"The Highway Patrol consistently receives reports from parents and motorists about speeding and reckless driving in areas where our children should be the safest – around our schools," said Capt. Russell Roark, HP District 1. "We are making a commitment this year to work with law enforcement to heavily patrol those areas to make sure our children get back to school safely."

The increased enforcement efforts will focus on high-traffic areas near high schools where young, inexperienced drivers tend to be involved in a high number of collisions. They will also focus on protecting children as they get on and off school buses, as pedestrians or bicyclists and in the regular flow of traffic in those congested areas. From 1995-1999, there have been 18 people killed and 2,482 people injured in collisions involving schools buses. Last year alone, there were four fatalities from collisions involving schools buses and 473 injuries. There were also three fatal crashes last year in the area of a school or playground in which four people were killed and 671 injured.

The Highway Patrol plans to continue its focus on school safety, even after school begins, by working with School Resource Officers (SROs) to target specific problems or complaints that they have heard from students, teachers and parents in the areas around their schools. SROs are law enforcement officers trained specifically to work with students in their schools to prevent violence.

School Resource Officers are trained by the Criminal Justice Academy, a division of DPS, and many are funded through the DPS Office of Justice Programs, which administers the grants to local sheriff’s departments to place SROs in schools. South Carolina has about 360 SROs in schools around the state.

"We train our SROs to recognize problems - not only inside the school doors - but what is affecting our students on the outside as well,’’ said William Neill, CJA Deputy Director. "We look at this as a great team effort among our various divisions within DPS as well as local law enforcement to help save lives and prevent injuries in our schools."

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SI/91/2000

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